VM moved to new vCenter

[Vitaliy S.]

If you've done everything that foggy mentioned in his first post in this thread and still see some issues, I would recommend to contact our support team for a more closer look at the log files. Thanks!

[gvinpin]

I have logged a call. This is a serious product fault.

[greendx]

[merged]

I am going to be migrating 3 ESXi 4.1 and 5 ESX 4.1 hosts currently managed by vCenter 4.1 server to a new vCenter 5.0 server. This will break all of my Veeam jobs for all VMs being backed up by via the existing vCenter server. I know that there is a powershell script on veeam forums that makes it easy to update all jobs to use a new vcenter server. However, all of my Veeam jobs currently contain mixed VMs from 3 separate vCenters and I don\'t want to affect any of the VMs that are on the other 2 vCenter servers since they are going to stay where they are.

I've opened a support case for this ID#5214288 but being told

"Normally we deal with customers who are upgrading an existing host. This will keep the same vCenter database which means all of the objects in your environment retain their existing id's. When you are creating a new vCenter, it is going to use a new database, giving everything new reference and parent id's. We use these id's to reference the machines, and if they change, there is no way for us to know that it is the same VM. The only way to accomplish what you are looking to do is long and tedious database editing. You would have to replace every reference and parent id in your vCenter database to match the ones that we have listed in Veeam's database. We don't have any sort of supported powershell script to perform this action. The biggest issue is that we also won't be able to map to the existing backups because they are still referencing the old id's as well."

I find this a bit surprising as I'm sure it's very common for people to go to a new vCenter for their vSphere upgrade in stead of upgrading existing vcenter. Anyway as I said I did find another thread that had a script for doing just that so this reply from support is even more disappointing. I realize my request is a bit more unusual in that I have multiple vCenters involved and VMs from these vCenters inter mixed in most of my backup jobs. Basically I want to know if what I'm trying to do is doable and if someone can help out. If it's not doable or if too complicated I was thinking about another approach of moving my ESX hosts to the new vcenter, copying all current backup jobs and modifying them to backup to a different storage array that I have temporary access to (unfortunately not enough space on current storage to do this). Then run a full backup for all jobs to the new storage array and run those backups for a few days / weeks while I go through the original jobs and remove and re-add all VMs as was also suggested by support. Once that is done I would be able to continue using my original backup jobs and kill new temporary jobs and not have any missed backups during this transition. Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to clone backup jobs in my version of veeam 5.0 Standard.

[mwkirk]

I have three VMs that I am replicating across a rather slow link. I had issues getting Vcenter upgraded so decided to just build a new Vcenter and I have all the hosts moved over to it at this point with the exception of two that I have the VM source and target on that I am doing the replications for. So, my understanding is that I will need to recreate the jobs which is really no big deal since there are three of them but what can I do so that I do not have to re-seed the entire replication? I also have a couple of jobs running backups for me which I can recreate those and just deal with the Change Block tracking being gone but any way to preserve that as well??

[zak2011]

We have had to move all our ESX hosts to a new vcenter. Is there a way to preserve all the exisiting jobs or do they need to be recreated over all again?
From what I conclude from the previous posts, I need to recreate them and then map the new job to the old backups. Is this the case with the v6.5?
Thanks,

[foggy]

Arun, you have to re-add VMs to your jobs and map them to the existing backup files/replica VMs, as it is advised earlier in this thread.

[zak2011]

Thanks foggy!

[zak2011]

Have tried to readd the jobs and mapped them to the existing backup files. However doesnt seem to work
Got the following error
"Failed to execute SOAP command "CRetrievePropertiesOperation". Details: "host-18" The object has already been deleted or has not been completely created"
I have already opened a support case now, however does this indicate any thing particular?
Thanks.

[Vitaliy S.]

This error has nothing to do with backup mapping functionality, looks like your Veeam B&R is trying to locate ESX(i) hosts when they were registered within the old vCenter Server.

If you create new backup job and map it to the existing backup file, does it work?

[zak2011]

Hi Vitaliy,
Yes I tried creating new backup jobs and mapping it to the exisitng backup file. Doesnt work though.
The new vcenter 5.1 is giving some very strange issues authenticating through AD. I am not able to log in to the vcenter from vsphere thru AD.However local admin log in works.
I have added the new vcenter in Veeam backup using the local administrator account of the newvcenter. Wouldnt the backup jobs run if the vcenter is added to Veeam B&R with the local administrator account?

[Vitaliy S.]

Hi Arun, local vCenter Server account should work just fine, let's see what our support team can say after reviewing your log files, but it does seem like new vCenter Server is not performing as expected (SOAP and connection errors).

[zak2011]

Hi Vitaliy,

Support resolved the issue. However the entire Veeam database was first backed up within SQL, then all enteries pointing to the old vcenter had to be removed by an SQL query.
After that all jobs were recreated from scratch.
It would help save a lot of time if there was a simple way to migrate all jobs from the old vcenter to the new one.

[Tobias_Elfstrom]

Hi.
I plan to move a couple of vmware clusters with its vSphere hosts and all the VM's within from one vCenter to another that is not linked.
I regards to this I have two questions that some of you might help me shed some light on:

One:
When moving one vSphere hosts it shows up rather quickly under the "new" vCenter in the Backup infrastructure tab in Veeam but it seems to also stay under the old.. even tough it is removed from the actual vCenter host.
How to I get the old stale vSphere host removed from the vCenter where it's no longer at?

Two:
If I have jobs where a number of VM's are selected is there anyway to avoid recreating the Veeam backupjob?
I mean , its the same VM's that are supposed to be backed up with the same job, it's just that the VM is found under a new vCenter server. This might be solved is the first issue is solved?

BR Tobias

[foggy]

How to I get the old stale vSphere host removed from the vCenter where it's no longer at?

Tobias, please contact technical support, they could assist you in editing Veeam B&R database to remove the obsolete host records.

If I have jobs where a number of VM's are selected is there anyway to avoid recreating the Veeam backupjob?

You have to re-add VMs to your jobs and map them to the existing backup files/replica VMs as their moref ID's change on registering in new vCenter.

[Tobias_Elfstrom]

You have to re-add VMs to your jobs and map them to the existing backup files/replica VMs as their moref ID's change on registering in new vCenter.

I thought that might work but it did not. However if I did not remap to the old backups it worked, otherwise i got the infamous host with uuid not found message. Seems that the old backups are tied to some old uuid.